The Home Secretary today praised the Gazette's successful Ban Young Guns campaign.

The Home Secretary today praised the Gazette's successful Ban Young Guns campaign.

The campaign hit the target as Mr Blunkett announced proposals to raise the age of airgun ownership from 14 to 17 this week.

In a special message today Mr Blunkett said: "It's a tribute to our police, our already tough laws and our society that Britain still has one of the lowest levels of gun crime throughout the world.

"But the killing of Charlene Ellis and Latisha Shakespear at a New Year's party has highlighted the grim fact that the carrying and use of guns, and their link to the drugs trade, is rising worryingly in parts of our country.

"Police and those living in the largely inner-city areas most affected know this already - as does this newspaper which has a proud record of campaigning against the menace of guns in the community."

He added: "Airguns and adapted weapons can and do cause misery in communities, harm and death to animals, and serious and permanent injury to innocent people.

"So we are going to raise the minimum age for owning an airgun and make it an arrestable offence for anyone to have an airgun in a public place without reasonable excuse."

Meanwhile, key figures were today meeting at the Home Office to set a new agenda for tackling gun crime. Mr Blunkett was chairing a discussion to "look at the wider picture" after statistics showed firearms offences in England and Wales soared by 35pc last year.

The Gazette has been campaigning since June for the age to be raised and for stricter controls on the sale of ammunition and for a licensing system.

More than 4,000 readers signed our petitions, which were delivered directly to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The RSPCA today backed the Government's move to take airguns out of youngsters' hands.

The animal charity believes teenage yobs are responsible for many attacks on animals on Teesside.

RSPCA chief superintendent Kevin Degenhard said:

"Year on year, the amount of air weapon attacks on animals rises significantly, and it is time our civilised society took action against such irresponsible, destructive and cruel behaviour."

The charity threw its weight behind the Gazette's Ban Young Guns campaign after animal attacks in the North-east hit an all-time high. A spokeswoman said it had learned of 130 incidents in the last year.

* To read a full archive of the Evening Gazette's stories on our Ban Young Guns campaign to www.icteesside.co.uk/0100news/banyoungguns